Still Haven’t Found What You're Looking For? - 26 June 2000
Despite technological advances to help us find, file and organise things, it may actually be advances of the 21st Century that are causing us to lose them. According to research conducted by Yell.com, the leading infomediary from Yellow Pages, we are a nation of losers, wasting at least one year (Calculation available on request) of our lives looking for lost items.The research entitled 'The Science of Finding Things', carried out by NOP22 Research conducted by NOP Solutions, 26th-28th May 2000. Base: nationally representative sample of GB adults aged 15+ (1000). The findings show the most commonly lost item is knickers and the most likely place to find them is down the back of the sofa. It also highlighted that Monday is the most popular day for losing things.
When it comes to what we want to find, we are more concerned with money than love - 79% of respondents want to find the winning lottery ticket and 57% want to find money. However only 30% want to find love and 29% want to find the right partner. Religion also featured highly, with 13% wanting to find spiritual guidance.
In terms of what people want to lose, weight, spots and wrinkles top the tables with over half wanting to lose weight and 45% wanting to lose wrinkles/spots. The research also hinted that we are a nation of prudes with a quarter of us wanting to lose our inhibitions.
When questioned how people react to losing things, more than twice as many men (28%) than women (12%) say they swear when they lose things. Playing on the emotions of the female species, a fifth of women (21%) cry when they lose things compared to only 2% of men. Conversely however it is the women who resort to violence, with more women than men saying they feel like punching or kicking something when they lose things. Other tactics cited included praying and talking to God.
Sandi Mann, independent psychologist explains: "In today's fast-paced society, we have more and more things to lose, more and more places to lose them in and less and less time with which to find them - all resulting in more stress when we do lose things."
Mann adds: "The research illustrates how men and women deal with the stress of losing things in different ways. It is interesting to see that in the 21st Century we are still following old-fashioned stereotypes, where women cry and men swear."
Based on the research findings, Yell.com recommends three guidelines to 'The Science of Finding Things':
1. Look in your underwear drawer
2. Look down the back of the sofa
3. Avoid Mondays
If you want to know how you can use Yell.com to find things quickly and easily, come along to Planet Internet with Yell.com at Tomorrow’s World Live, 28th June 2000, Earls Court 2, London. See you there - if you can find it!
Other key findings include:
- Sadly the study also suggested that a large proportion of the married respondents consider the grass to be greener on the other side - 19% of married people want to find love and 14% want to find the right man/woman.
- 6% of respondents would like to lose their virginity - strangely 5% of these are married!!
- A quarter of married people (25%) want to lose their inhibitions
- Children, girlfriends, husbands, dignity and marbles are some of the more bizarre things lost
- Three quarters of respondents (74%) do not fear losing their pet
- More men (34%) than women (27%) would like to find love
- More men (34%) than women (24%) would like to find the right man or woman
- Twice as many married people (44%) than single people (22%) say the most common place they lose things is down the back of the sofa whereas twice as many single people (26%) than married people (13%) say the most common place they lose things is in bars/clubs/restaurants
- More men (30%) than women (26%) claim they are organised and never lose things
- Half of over 65s blame themselves when they lose things compared to 15% of 15-24 yr. olds
- 7% use the Internet to replace lost items
Name: Socialite Sue
Profession: Senior Advertising Executive
Age: 27
A day in the life: Out of bed at the crack of dawn and in the gym for a quick workout before finally arriving at the office at around 7am. (Just thinking about Sue’s daily routine makes you out of breath).
Once in the office, Sue’s days are a whirlwind of back to back meetings, with barely a minute to warm her chair. On slower days, though, she might get a chance to grab a sandwich for lunch. She leaves the office most nights at around 7.30pm.
After office hours, Sue dons her socialite shoes and hits the town for a few cocktails with her media darlings. She rolls into bed around midnight.
Needless to say, with a busy life like hers, Sue’s domestic life leaves a lot to be desired. Her studio flat -although very spacious and kitted out with all the latest mod cons - is always in a state of complete and utter chaos.
Sue desperately needs a plumber to fix her leaking tap (it’s been dripping for the past 4 months) and a cleaning lady to keep her place in order. She wouldn’t mind a holiday either, but since when did she have the time to go and book one!
Sue can never find anything when she needs it, she just doesn’t have enough hours in the day.
Sue needs to YELL.
Most common item Lost: Handbag
Most feared item that could get lost: Mobile phone
Commonest reaction to losing things: She swears!
Commonest place to lose things: Bars/clubs and restaurants
Name: Immaculate Ingrid
Profession: PA to a director
Age: 41
The structure of her day is timed down to the very last second. She leaves the house at 8.17, is in the office at 8.45 and a cup of fresh coffee is sat on her boss’s desk at 9.01am.
Ingrid’s flawless appearance and strict work ethics set the standard for all the young aspiring PA’s around her office. Her desk is a shrine of tidiness, marvelled by all, and her filing cabinets are renowned for being the most organised and logical in the business.
She has a one-hour lunch break and she leaves the office at 5pm on the dot. Ingrid gets in from work shortly after 5.45pm, has her tea and spends the rest of her evening tidying the house.
Ingrid takes great pride in her organisational ability; everything has its place and she never loses anything. To lose something would upset Ingrid’s karma.
Ingrid needs to let her hair down and find a hobby. Ingrid needs to YELL!
Most feared item that could get lost: Wedding ring/reading glasses
Commonest reaction: She would probably blame herself and promise never to do it again.
Commonest place to lose things: In a filing cabinet, possibly
PROFILE OF A LOSER
Name: Possessive Pete
Profession: Estate Agent
Age: 31
A day in the life: Actually getting out of the house and setting off for work takes quite a lot of effort on Pete’s part. Well, before he can leave, he has to work out where he left his tape-measure, keys, mobile phone and clipboard from the day before. He’s always 20 minutes late.
Pete’s bedsit could be likened to a bric-a-brac shop - piled high with ‘stuff’. Given that Pete shows clients around other people’s houses all day, you’d think he’d know better.
But credit where credit’s due, Pete never physically ‘loses’ anything. In fact, that is his one and only claim to fame. (That’ll be because he hoards everything he has ever received, bought or come across).
Pete still has all his school reports, essays, paintings and exercise books. He still has all his Football Italia ’90 player stickers. He still has a stack of Sainsbury’s recipe cards, dating back as far as 1984 and Pete has still got his Millennium Falcon (from the first time around) hidden in one of his cupboards. It’s a wonder how he manages to live there at all, let alone find some clean clothes.
To throw something out would be sheer sacrilege. It’s just a shame that poor old Pete can never FIND anything. He seems to spend half of his waking day wading through mountains of rubbish.
Pete needs one single source of information at his fingertips. Pete needs to YELL
Most common item Lost: His left sock
Most feared item that could get lost: The valentine’s card he got from his first (and Last) girlfriend way back in 199.
Commonest reaction to losing things: He blames himself
Commonest place to lose things: Down the back of the sofa-bed (when he can be bothered to put it up)
PROFILE OF A LOSER
Name: Hysterical Henry
Profession: International Sales and Marketing Exec
Age: 35
A day in the life: Henry gets up. He gets ready. He heads to the kitchen to make himself some breakfast - he loses a contact lens in his bowl of cereal. Time for work, Henry leaves the house and shuts the front door - he locks himself out.
Henry rushes out of the office to catch a plane for an important business meeting in Milan - he leaves his passport on his desk. Whilst at the airport, waiting for his passport to be couriered to him, he loses the bottle of aftershave he bought from Duty Free only moments earlier. (Fortunately he didn’t manage to lose his plane tickets this time).
Henry is a serial loser. If it’s not tied around his neck or attached to him with a piece of string, there’s no guarantee it’ll still be with him by the end of the day.
He can’t actually remember a day when he didn’t lose or misplace something. And when he’s not losing, then he’s trying to replace things. If he could lose a limb, he probably would.
Knowing that he could lose something at any given moment makes Henry’s life is one permanent stress. He’ll have crashed and burned by the time he’s forty, if he doesn’t make some changes soon.
Henry needs to YELL
Most common item lost: Wallet, credit card, keys, passport
Most feared item that could get lost: His head!
Commonest reaction to losing things: He feels like punching some one or something
Commonest place to lose things: In a taxi / on a plane
